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4.0 Plan Area Biology and Land Use

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4.0 Plan Area Biology and Land Use 4.0 Study Area Biology and Land Use 4.0 Plan Area Biology and Land Use 4.1 Setting The NCCP/HCP Plan Area covers approximately 992,000 acres in western San Diego County and southwestern Riverside County. This diverse geographic landscape includes flat, relatively gentle slopes on the coastal terraces, mesas, broad river valleys, and steep hills and mountains in the inland portions. Topographical features include coastal beaches; mesas, canyons and rolling hills; plains, buttes, and plateaus; foothills and mountains; and rivers, creeks and drainages. Steep canyons are associated with drainages that have cut through hills and mesas. Intermittent streams flow down the slopes into canyons, eventually merging with one of the several major rivers that terminate in lagoons and estuaries near the Pacific Ocean. San Diego County has a Mediterranean climate characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Annual precipitation in the NCCP/HCP area varies from less than 11 inches near the coast to more than 25 inches farther inland near the Laguna Mountains. The Plan Area contains more than 100 different soil types that range in texture and qualities, such as erodibility and expansion. The range in soil types is a result of many factors, including the underlying bedrock, temperature, saturation, and plant cover. As a result of diverse topography and microclimates, a number of unique habitats and vegetation communities that support a host of native plant and wildlife species occur within the Plan Area. Nevertheless, human activities have modified many of the region’s plant communities and replaced large tracts of native vegetation with agriculture and urban development, especially in the western portion of the Plan Area. The Water Authority has fee ownership or easements/rights-of-ways in the Plan Area. Many facilities and easements in the Plan Area are located along the linear aqueduct system that traverses north-south routes from southwestern Riverside County to southern San Diego (see Figure 1-2). 4.1.1 Database Development Information on the vegetation communities and Covered Species addressed in this Plan was developed from reviews of existing GIS data bases (primarily the San Diego County SanGIS database and California Natural Diversity Database, CNDDB), previously prepared regional conservation plans for San Diego and western Riverside counties, species occurrence records from the San Diego Natural History Museum, and field assessments by Water Authority staff and environmental contractors. This information addresses biological information collection recommendations by the Independent 4-1 4.0 Study Area Biology and Land Use Science Advisors and represents the best available scientific information for the vegetation communities and Covered Species. The SanGIS database is maintained by the county and city of San Diego and was created or obtained from many sources. Some data was created from tabular digital files; some data was digitized from paper maps; and other data was entered using coordinate geometry tools. It includes over 400 geographic data layers, such as vegetation, land use/zoning, roads, parcels, etc. SanGIS staff is responsible for coordinating with other data maintainers to ensure currency and accuracy for all participants. All of the SanGIS geographic data is within San Diego County. The accuracy of the data varies between themes and within themes depending on the source documents used to create the data. Most of the source documents used for SanGIS data was at one inch equals 200 feet or one inch equals 400 feet, making it more accurate than many other GIS data sources. According to SanGIS’s website, the SanGIS data has an overall accuracy of plus or minus 10 feet. CNDDB is a "natural heritage program" and is part of a nationwide network of similar programs overseen by NatureServe (formerly part of The Nature Conservancy). All natural heritage programs provide location and natural history information on special status plants, animals, and natural communities to the public, other agencies, and conservation organizations. The data help drive conservation decisions, aid in the environmental review of projects and land use changes, and provide baseline data helpful for endangered species recovery efforts and research projects. The goal of the CNDDB is to provide the most current information available on California's most imperiled elements of natural diversity and to provide tools to analyze these data. The CNDDB concentrates its work on areas with active NCCP/HCPs, and high priority areas identified by CDFG and other biologists. The primary method of data dissemination is via the computer application RareFind, which allows for complex querying and reporting by the user. For GIS users, a shapefile of the entire CNDDB dataset is available. Information was also obtained from the MSHCP, San Diego MSCP, and San Diego MHCP. Conservation plans prepared under those programs provided relevant information on land use, vegetation distribution, and species occurrences. The San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM) maintains extensive records for plant and animals occurrences in San Diego County. Records were reviewed to update and fill-in apparent gaps in species’ information after the preceding information sources were utilized. As projects and activities were conducted by the Water Authority since inception of the Plan, biological specialists have field-verified vegetation conditions, disturbed areas, and uses over portions of land both within and outside the various rights-of-way and facilities. 4-2 4.0 Study Area Biology and Land Use This site-specific data is continually refined and updated as projects are planned and implemented. 4.2 Vegetation Communities and Habitat Types Habitat and vegetation communities in the Plan Area reflect the diverse topography and climate of the region. As a result, a large number of habitat and vegetation types that support a host of native plant and wildlife species exist within the Plan Area. The distribution of vegetation communities occurring within the Plan Area is shown in Figure 4-1. Vegetation communities found within the Plan Area include coastal fringe environments, freshwater wetland, sage scrub, chaparral, grasslands, oak woodlands, high foothill, montane, and vernal pool habitats. Other land types include agricultural and non-native landscapes, as well as developed and urbanized lands. Vegetation community classifications follow Holland (1986) as modified by Oberbauer (2005) and Sawyer and Keeler-Wolf (1995). Floral nomenclature for common plants follows Hickman (1993). Specific definitions for communities follow the North County MHCP Volume II Appendix F (SANDAG 2003) and the MSHCP’s Riverside County Integrated Project (RCIP 2003). Figure 4-1 displays the generalized vegetation communities and land cover types within the Plan Area based on regional vegetation community mapping from SanGIS that was most recently updated in 2007. The acreage of each vegetation or land cover type and subcommunity is shown for both the Plan Area and the PIZ in Table 4-1. Because the majority of vegetation mapping was performed at a landscape level (i.e., large scale), the vegetation subcommunities listed in this table have been further refined in some cases to better represent vegetation communities known to occur in the region. Although there are subcommunities that have not been distinctly mapped within the Plan Area or the PIZ, it is anticipated that site specific surveys in the area of proposed Covered Activities may reveal some of these specific subcommunities. Table 4-2 provides the terminology used in the Plan in comparison to terminology used in other regional planning documents. 4-3 ORANGEORANGE COUNTYCOUNTY RIVERSIDERIVERSIDE COUNTYCOUNTY SANSAN DIEGODIEGO COUNTYCOUNTY P a c i f i c O c e a n ATES UNITED ST MEXICO Map source: CWA, January 2009 0 Miles 10 [ NCCP/HCP Plan Area Aquatic Marine Disturbed/Developed Riparian Probable Impact Zone Aquatic Freshwater Grasslands Sage Scrub (PIZ) Chaparral Non-Native Vegetation Wetland Vegetation Communities/ Land Cover Types Coastal Oak Woodland and Forest Agricultural Coniferous Forest Disturbed Riparian FIGURE 4-1 Vegetation Communites/Land Cover Types M:\JOBS2\3639\env\gis\NCCP\Fig4-1_NCCP.mxd 8/6/2010 in the NCCP/HCP Plan Area TABLE 4-1 APPROXIMATE AREA OF VEGETATION COMMUNITIES/LAND COVER TYPES (acres) Approximate Area1 Vegetation Community/Land Cover Type and Subcommunities Plan Area PIZ Upland Habitats Agricultural 123,240 11,469 General Agriculture 12,348 2,092 Extensive Agriculture (Row Crops, Pastures) 39,055 2,597 Intensive Agriculture (Dairies, Nurseries, Chicken Ranches) 5,189 259 Orchards and Vineyards 66,648 6,521 Chaparral, Coastal 142,204 8,139 Chamise Chaparral (Granitic Chamise Chaparral) 5,425 29 Chaparral2 36,025 1,664 Ceanothus crassifolius Chaparral 4,231 0 Interior Live Oak Chaparral 00 Northern Mixed Chaparral 140 0 Northern Mixed Chaparral (Granitic) 14 0 Northern Mixed Chaparral (Mafic) 10 Scrub Oak Chaparral 301 0 Southern Maritime Chaparral 3,025 4 Southern Mixed Chaparral (Granitic) 92,848 6,435 Southern Mixed Chaparral (Mafic) 194 7 Chaparral, Montane/Trans-montane 0 0 Montane Chaparral 00 Redshank Chaparral 00 Coastal 459 0 Open Beach 301 0 Southern Foredunes 158 0 Coniferous Forest 902 0 Big Cone Spruce- Canyon Oak Forest 721 0 Mixed Coniferous Forest 20 Southern Interior Cypress Forest, Tecate Cypress Forest 17 0 Torrey Pine Forest 162 0 Disturbed/Developed 378,251 25,024 Bare Ground 00 Disturbed 352,165
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